tanabutler

Sumir, it's so much fun to read about your fruit-filled adventures. FYI, the clafouti recipe I posted contains ground almonds, and they add something more than the sum of the parts to the recipe, I think. Almost a custard flavor—certainly something more than I expected. That recipe is almost as easy as the cobbler one: butter a pan, chopped uncooked fruit on butter, batter on fruit, and top with ground almonds and crumbled brown sugar. Some people use white sugar, but they are WRONG WRONG WRONG—they're missing the rustic perfection that a clafouti is. So, you're a cobbler fool? Ever made a peach fool? (That's just a sample—I don't know that I'd make that particular one, but it's fun to link to the recipe.) You just reminded me that we've got three gigantic blackberry patches on our property, and it's high time I got out there with the kidlets and picked some. Blackberry pie, mmmmmmmmmm. My fourteen-year-old daughter is an amazing baker.

Gallery of Regrettable Food: Savory Horrors from the Past! "What were they thinking? How did they eat this bilge? Good questions, but you won't find them answered here." One of the funniest websites on earth, and one that surely inspired the Weight Watchers cards site.

I love that review, too. Yow.

Well, isn't anyone going to post about the size of Jeremiah's hands?

I'm doing what Rachel's doing: makin' bacon. Only the recipe in the SF Chronicle said 300 degrees/25 minutes/turn halfway through. I don't use a rack—just a big sheet pan with heavy-duty foil. (Next time I'll try a rack but the bacon had already gone into the oven before I got to the end of the thread.) And for my money, Niman Ranch dry-cured bacon ("heirloom pork") is the best on earth. Praise be to Trader Joe's for carrying it!

With 14,000 topics to read, you'd think I get to this one sooner. I am still interested in this thread, though Klinks's moooooooved to the upper tundra of America (I think that's what I read). Boys, if the guys at Corralitos Market could type, with their bloodstained hands, I'd beg them to come here. (Google them. They rock.) I do have the sausage attachment to the KitchenAid, but I haven't had the nerve or the ingredients to use it yet.

Eric, whenever I see your profile, I laugh about what your Mom said. (I'm still learning my way around people here.)

Another vote for corn soup, here. Roasted Sweet Corn Soup with Smoked Trout and Heirloom Tomatoes from Bobby Flay via FoodTV.com. My favorite corn soup recipe is Bobby Flay's "Roasted Corn Soup with Smoked Chile Cream" from his Bold American Food cookbook. Corn, white wine, stock and cream. Top with sour cream/green chiles/lime juice. The soup is easy: 6 ears of corn roasted on the grill in their husks 2 T unsalted butter 1 onion, diced fine 1 T minced garlic 2 c. dry white wine (for this, chardonnay works well, and grassy wines like sauvignon blanc less well, I think) 5 c. chicken stock 2 c heavy cream drizzle each bowl with smoked chile cream (below) Sweat the onion and garlic in melted butter for 3-5. Add wine, bring to a boil and reduce 10-15, until you have about 4 T. Reduce heat to low, add corn kernels (which you have obviously scraped from their cobs) and sweat for 5. The corn, not you—except it is damned hot in the kitchen, isn't it, in the middle of the summer? Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium and simmer for 20. Uncovered. The soup, not you. Wait, it's hot in that kitchen, so maybe you can take your clothes off. Raise the heat to high again, add the cream, and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally for 10-15, until soup has thickened. Purée 3/4 of the soup , return it to the pan, and s/p to taste. Bobby says "12 bowls" worth, but I think that's stingy. Meaning, serve six people and keep the rest for yourself! To make that: stir together 1/2 c. sour cream, 2 t canned/puréed chipotles (I use non-puréed canned diced green chiles—delicious!), 1 t lime juice, s/p. Keeps in the fridge up to one day.

Mojito Club: purchase online. I haven't tried it. I have made mojitos with Bacardi's Ciclon, though (rum, tequila and lime flavor)—they're not as good as a traditional mojito, but they're damned good. I hope that helps.

This is my absolute favorite site for finding lodgings: www.RomeBy.com Good luck!

A woman at Readerville had posted, months ago: And everyone I asked said the same thing, but I don't know the bottle or winery. Thanks for the help, all. Does anyone in San Francisco know where to buy Gruner Veltliner wines?

Nice post, Jim. She sounds kindred.

Any idea if the farms are mostly organic?

Maggiecat, you rock.

Oooh, Suvir, I have another recipe for you. I don't know if you know about these farm dinners I attend (and photograph) for "Outstanding in the Field," but I have been to over a dozen now, from the very beginning in 1999. In June, we went to a dinner at which Tracy Des Jardins, of Jardinière in San Francisco, was guest chef. Her pastry chef, Francisco Almaguer, created what is literally one of the two best desserts I have ever had in my life, a mixed berry crumble with whipped crème fraîche. I begged for the recipe, and they gave it to me so I could post it on the OitF site. (Note: the Framboise is not optional. Its presence lifted the dessert from the sublime to the ethereal. I'm telling you what: heaven on a fork is what that dessert is. (The second best dessert was also at a farm dinner: David Kinch's Sent Sovi pastry chef created an apple cobbler that made you drunk just smelling it. They didn't give me the recipe, alas.) I haven't made it yet, but am saving it for a special occasion. Of course, the fruit needs to be perfect. Edit: I need to qualify how amazing it is that a chocolate fiend would claim two fruit desserts as being extraordinary—that's a testimony to the fruit and the chefs.

Thank you, Suvir, for your kind words. I love your writing—in the few days I've been aboard here—and consider it an honor that you like my work. I've only been photographing for about five years, thank God for digital cameras! Just one note to the Paula Dean recipe. I made it first with unsalted butter, and used less sugar than is required (I always use less sugar). I'd say 5/6 cup or 3/4 cup in both the peaches and the batter. Yesterday, I unthinkingly used salted butter, and I did not like it nearly as much. So I recommend unsalted butter and probably less sugar, depending on the sweetness of your peaches. Mine were extraordinarily sweet.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 2003: The mojo in Mojitos casts its spell over a city I've had the mojitos at Habana—the best. Making mojitos at home, down and dirty, I've put the mint in the blender with the rum and strained through a gold coffee filter (I don't use it for coffee). This is the most refreshing cocktail on earth, in my opinion.

Well, viewing the list of participating farms and ranches at the Saturday market, it looks like a honking big farmer's market to me. Nearly a hundred by my estimation. Is Alemany bigger than that? (Where is Alemany? I live in Santa Cruz and only visit SF occasionally.) The list of participants. Inside the building, not many booths are open yet. Fewer than ten, I'd guess, which is why my recommendations about what to get were so limited. There is bread, cheese, olive oil, chocolate, Peet's (coffee and very limited tea selection)...oh, and there is a wine merchant, but you can only drink the wine inside the store at the bar. And now I'm off to the Cabrillo Farmer's Market myself. Oysters, mmmm. $10/dozen.

Sorry. I was "the poster." I apologize for my ignorance about the farmer's market.

Sorry. I was "the poster." I apologize for my ignorance about the farmer's market.

"Everything you see, I owe to pancetta." -- Sophia Loren -------- "Let them eat bacon." -- M. Antoinette

"First Pig" My bacon's crisp on both sides, It will not last the night. But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, It's wonderful to bite. --Edna St. Vincent Porker

I am in constant disbelief at people who say, "I'm a vegetarian. I only eat chicken and fish." When my daughter was young, she was meatless. I told my mother, "If it had a face, she doesn't eat it." Once morning, before a vacation back home, my mother called to ask, "Does shrimp have a face?" "Mom, if it had a MOTHER, she doesn't eat it—except eggs. Does a shrimp grow on a plant?!" My girl's daddy has family in Texas, where the state flower is a cow, as you all know. She was sitting on one of their laps, and he's starting to shovel a spoonful of chicken soup into my baby's mouth. "Stop! She doesn't eat meat!" "This isn't meat! This is chicken!" I wish I were making any of that up. Well, the state flower thing. We now return you to this splendid topic. What beautiful posts there've been.

Peach-Plum Clafouti: so, so good. This is what is in my oven this minute (with four cups of Frog Hollow peaches!): Paula Dean's Peach Cobbler. Five ingredients, and the easiest thing in the world. No kidding. I'll post a pic when it comes out. It's literally this easy: melt butter in deep dish. Pour batter on top of butter. Pour cooked fruit on top of batter. Bake. Voilà!

CSA Center: plug in your zip code. Ditto LocalHarvest.org